Scorecard

St Albans III v Northwood Town Cricket Club Saturday 2nd XI on Sat 11 May 2019 at 1:00 PMNorthwood Town Cricket Club Won by 50 runs

Match report

Town arrived at Sandpit Lane to commence this years league agains St Albans 3rd XI on a day that preceded consistent recent rains. The pitch looked like a freshly baked loaf, soft & moist. Having lost the toss, town were asked to bat 1st. It was quite clear that scoring runs was going to be very challenging and skipper Ramawat got out without troubling the scorers while Gairola was making use of anything loose from the other end. Ravi Kotecha batting at no 3 joined Gairola in the middle and started to build the partnership on a very tricky wicket. Together they scored 33 runs in 13 overs taking town score to 53/1 in 15 overs on a pitch where nobody could tell what the ball would do if pitched on length. Just when things were looking settled, Gairola got run out trying to take a single. Pandey came and went without troubling his knees and town were 65 for 3 in 17 overs.

Bhrambatt joined Ravi Kotecha in the middle and together they started to rebuild the innings on a pitch where it was very difficult to rotate the strike give the slow and sogginess on the pitch. Together they played within themselves to ensure town did not loose any further wickets in the next 10 overs and scored 27 runs making scoreline 92/3 in 27. Both now well set, town started to accelerate and Bhrambatt in particular started playing some lovely lofted shots. Together they added another 40 runs in the next 6 overs.

It was quite refreshing to see a female cricketer on the field and specially if it was a quick bowler. St Albans were playing Herts women's skipper and introduced her in the 34th over. Clearly Ravi Kotecha fancied her and decided to go after her on the 1st delivery that she bowled but only to realise that his home furniture was in tatters. Enters Mapara and he too couldn't last more then 2 minutes and was trapped in front of the wickets trying to impress her with his wrist. Raj Kotecha joined the middle and got out without troubling much and suddenly from a consolidated position, town were reeling on 132/6 in 35 overs. Target of 200 was looking very remote by now.

Anjum joined Bhrambatt in the middle who was batting beautifully and together they kept the scoreline ticking and played their shots on balls that offered any width or pitched up. Bhrambatt got out in the 40th over trying to up the scoring rate on 53, an innings that was a good mix of caution and aggression. What came next was a full house entertainment show of a complete decadence, ignoring the conditions and bowling attach, both Anjum and Janardhan decimated the bowling by playing lovely shots and scored 55 runs in the last 5 overs taking town total to 203 for the loss of 9. Both Anjum and Janardhan took towns total beyond the safety shore on a pitch that was doing all sorts.

After a decent tea break, town took to the filed and new ball was shared between Malik and Mapara. After some initial jitters, both settled into a nice rhythm and adapted to the deck that was getting easier to bat on by every passing over. Despite Albans getting odd boundary every other over town new ball bowers kept things tight and finally Malik got rewarded with the help of Raj Kotecha who took a fine catch at long-off and as the old cliche goes, one bring another, Malik got No 3 out in his next over making Albans scoreline 46/2 in 11 overs. Mapara grew in confidence with every passing over and finished his spell in a go for a fine figures of 26 runs in 9 overs and was very unlucky to not get any wicket.

Double bowling change got Janardhan and Syed into the attach and both got straight to the business with perfect line-lengths, soon they both strangled the Albans chase by bowling tight and ably supported by decent fielding. What followed was a perfect cat-mouse approach, Albans for the next 20 overs did not show any interest and focused on rebuilding their innings and both Janardhan & Syed completed their quota, in his final over Janardhan finally broke this partnership that lasted 20 overs by cleaning up the batsmen and soon the other opener got run-out by a fine fielding effort by Anjum leaving Albans scoreline 100/4 at the end of 33 overs.

Albans needing 105 runs in the next 12 overs at the rate of 9 runs/over. Skipper passed the ball to Anjum who carried on the pressure and despite some last minute mad hitting by Albans, they could only collect 155 in their 45 overs for the loss of 9 wickets. Town won the game by 50 runs.

A victory laid out by some fine performances with the bat earlier in the innings by Brahambhatt, Anjum & Janardhan and later equally supported by a fine bowling effort by all. All in all a true all round effort from the team to get 30 points and finish the game clinically.